Black Inked Pearl - Ruth Finnegan

                Black Inked Pearl is not a typical love story. It’s written in a poetic form with lots of what I assumed were made up words that often made very little sense to me although the author did include in the back a list of terms (not made up) that helped me understand quite a bit. There were parts of the story that I really liked, such as Kate’s visit to the old people’s home and the beautiful descriptions of Ireland. Some of the poetry was really lovely and touching, describing the heartache and beauty that accompanies love, especially evident in the poems near the end of the book. I also liked the story which was the age old need to find one’s true love just like Kate, the main character, who spends her life trying to find the man she once rejected but now knows is her soul mate. It’s beautiful and touching but, at times, the writing style is somewhat choppy which cause me some confusion. I don’t want to have to concentrate so hard just to read a book unless I’m analyzing it for a university class which, by the way, this book would be great to use as required reading. So I’m a bit on the fence about this book. If you’re looking for a beautiful love story albeit a challenging one to read, then this book is perfect for you. The cover is darkly beautiful and the digital version read well on my ereader.

The Secrets on Forest Bend - Susan C. Muller

                When I read the synopsis of this book I thought it would be a great supernatural mystery. The prologue set up how Heather becomes a ghost with nasty tendencies in such a way that I settled in for an entertaining ghost-laden mystery. The book proved to be good but the mystery took a back burner to the romance between the two main characters, Adam and Jillian. Adam is the cop investigating murders committed using the same gun and Jillian is the owner of the gun shop the weapon came from. She also happens to have a lot of deaths surrounding her. The book is well written and the characters are well thought out and believable. The story idea about a jealous and destructive ghost is unique enough that it kept my interest throughout.  I just happened to be more interested in the mystery aspect of the book. Had I been as interested in the relationship between Jillie and Adam as I was in the character of Heather, I would have found this to be the perfect read. I read the digital version of this book which formatted well. The cover and title help to pull a reader in. Overall, this is an interesting story.

Devotional:Erotic Stories for the Sensual Mind - Phil Harvey

                Devotional is a collective of nine very short stories that aren’t like the usual erotic stories one might read. There is very little actual sexual activity. Rather the stories are based around the mind games that men and women often play in the build up to the act. For me, this works for some stories and not for others in the anthology. A couple of the stories just left me thinking to myself, “Huh?!” One such story was Devotional but that may be because the whole spanking thing has never been anything I understood. I do enjoy the author’s style of writing. The pace is steady, the characters are surprisingly well rounded for short stories, and the dialogue is believable. If I put out of my mind that it’s supposed to be erotic short stories then I enjoyed the book. My favorite story, Spooking Ralph’s Trout, has very little sexual content in it at all. What I found enjoyable was the interaction between the two characters and that is how the writer keeps my interest in a book that wasn’t quite the erotic anthology I was expecting. I read a digital version of this book on my ereader and it formatted well. The cover is different and quite interesting.